SWIFT: To know Carney is not to love him
Catherine Swift is the President of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers & Businesses of Canada
In the barrage of pronouncements coming at Canadians from Liberal leader Mark Carney, two words have been conspicuously absent — net zero. This concept, meaning the achievement of a state in which there are no net greenhouse gases produced by human activity, has been Carney’s principal obsession for at least the last decade. It has been the driving force behind his work with the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, international financial bodies and investment companies. Yet we don’t hear a peep from him about net zero during this critical election period.
However, it is clear from his policy positions on a number of energy-related issues that he has by no means abandoned this goal. While on the one hand Carney claims to want to turn Canada into an “energy superpower,” at the same time he states he will not reverse any of the policies that have prevented Canada from achieving that goal for the last decade.
Although Carney has reduced the consumer carbon tax to zero — for now — he will retain the hidden and very damaging industrial carbon tax. In fact, he will likely increase it. He has no intention of eliminating the emissions cap on the energy industry, which many studies have shown to be a cap on the production of that vital economic sector. The Parliamentary Budget Officer and other have shown how the emissions cap will reduce our GDP and employment significantly.
Other impediments to our resource sector include the Impact Assessment Act — also known as the No-More-Pipelines act — and the West coast tanker ban. In response to Trump’s tariff threats, support among Canadians for pipelines has increased sharply, yet Carney plans to retain the legislation that makes it virtually impossible to build one.
Although no firm statement has been made as yet, it is expected the tanker ban will remain as well, preventing oil exports from the West coast. It makes no sense that tankers are perfectly fine on our East coast, where Canada imports oil from places such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, unless the goal is to hobble the Western Canadian energy industry.
The positions Carney has taken on all of these issues essential to our energy industry directly contradict his claim to want to make Canada an energy superpower, unless by that he means producing a lot more energy from costly and unreliable wind and solar installations.
As for net zero, many credible scientists have debunked the notion that this goal is achievable by the 2050 target date without demolishing our economy and standard of living — if it is achievable at all. Despite having initially signed on to Carney’s various net zero alliances, banks and investment companies are now backing away from net zero goals as it becomes even clearer how destructive they are to market economies and prosperity.
Carney should come clean with Canadians and admit that despite his message of change, he fully intends to continue all of the most damaging Trudeau government’s restrictions on our resource sector that led to the 2015-2025 period being called Canada’s lost decade.
After all, Carney was a key Trudeau advisor for most of that decade. It is widely acknowledged that the single most important thing any future government can do to reverse Canada’s present economic decline is unleash our resource wealth and end the policies that have impaired the sector for years. That will not happen under a Carney government.
In contrast, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been clear in stating that he will get rid of the harmful Impact Assessment Act, the emissions cap and the industrial carbon tax. Reversing all of this damaging legislation will permit Canada’s oil and gas sector to once again make the major contribution to Canada’s economy that it has in the past, enriching Canadians in the process.
Maximizing the potential of this sector will also improve our productivity performance, which has lagged badly in recent years. Unleashing our liquid natural gas (LNG) exports to allies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere will provide reliable supplies of responsibly-produced energy to countries that are currently using dirtier fuels such as coal or are dependent upon hostile players such as Russia. Win-win-win.
The Liberals chose to limit the election period to the shortest time possible for good reason, as Canadians would have little opportunity to get to know the Liberal leader and his preferred policies.
At a minimum, Canadians deserve to know what they are voting for. Carney’s net zero goal is exactly that — a big zero for Canada.
Catherine Swift is the President of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers & Businesses of Canada.
